Keeping thy promise
by confusedwench
Summary: call it a copy, I don't care! I just made Avery Taylor's original story miyuxkanata, because I have wanted to do that for a loong time!


_**KEEEPING THY PROMISE**_

_**Chapter 1**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Daa3! If I did, the anime wouldn't have ended on such a boring note! And the original story has been written by Avery Taylor under the name "Remember the Roses".**

Kanata glanced upwards to the dark grey sky strewn with search lights that probed into the thick damp darkness of Nakayama Prefecture as he went up the steps of the sand shielded building in Howatihouru. Yamada O-san was waiting in the underground room of the building and turned from a large map of all the four major islands of Japan as he entered.

"Ah, Saionji Taichou. I didn't think you would get here so soon. Sit down and I'll brief you." He opened a file on his desk and handed Kanata a photograph. "That's Mizutani Hei. He's the head of the surveillance movement in Miyume. Two days ago, we heard he had been captured by the Southern Army." He paused and drew a breath. "Saionji, in just one week's time, the Head Commander will land in Nakayama."

Kanata, like everyone else in the Prefecture, had been expecting the head commander's units to arrive for uprooting the organization but the statement still came as something of a shock. "A week?"

"Yes, I can't tell you just where their landings will take place but I can say this. We have gone through immense trouble to convince the HC to let us carry on with our work. Fortunately, he's occupied with some trivial peasant riots on Hateruma bay. Our actual landing point is known only to a few."

"And Mizutani Hei is one of them." Kanata guessed.

"We knew it was a risk but if there was any way by which we could keep tabs on the southern army was by taking the help of Mizutani's team. They are the only surveillance team functional in the Southern Army's Honshu provinces after the Southern Government took over and uprooted everything. You know as well as I do at what lengths their army can go to extract information from an enemy prisoner. Even the strongest men can break under them. It isn't just a question of courage. Mizutani must be reached. Either rescued or…" he moved his hand in a helpless gesture. "Or silenced. It isn't pleasant. To have to kill an ally. But a lot is at stake- the future of our organization, the lives of its members and most importantly, thousands of citizens. We either present the HC with information by rescuing him, or let him uproot this as well. We either convince him, or let him declare an all-out war. But should we fail to rescue him-"

Kanata nodded. It wasn't the first time that a captured member had to be eliminated because he knew too much. The organization never took chances with its own members, no matter how good they were. This was only a stranger bound to them through mutual agreements.

He knew why the Brigadier had picked him. For him, it wouldn't be a new experience.

"Where is he being held?"

Yamada O-san rose and tapped on the wall map. "Here, in Aoto. The old prison near the base of the mountain. Mizutani's members have a plan of getting him out but the job calls for someone fluent in all the local dialects."

"When do I leave?"

"Today, at midnight. A car will take you to our airfield in Edo. You'll be briefed on your cover there and kitted out. I don't want you in Miyume for more than twenty four hours." He held out his hand, his face suddenly looking more grave and older. "I hope to Kami-sama that you succeed, Saionji. If there's a leak, it will be another Kurusu, only worse, much worse."

"I'll do my best, sir." Kanata shook the colonel's hand and saluted, conscious, as he turned away, the nausea building up painfully inside his stomach. Another drop, his fourth, and the chances of survival grew less every time. But worse than the thought of the capture was the thought that he might have to kill an ally again, stranger he maybe. That was a particular kind of horror. Even his own memories of the slaughter of his best friend failed to take away the agonizing guilt and the nausea from his self.

Kanata knelt on the damp turf as he clambered out of the airplane. Around him, the surroundings remained deathly still and quiet. The mountains looked sinister in the deep darkness where they loomed large, against the deep blue night sky.

As the faint buzz of the plane died down, the brunet looked around himself, unable to see the expected torch signal. There could be hundreds of reasons why no one had come to meet him but the unexpected was still rather alarming. Of course, the Southerners had been expecting the second front. They had been tightening up, making movement difficult. Even so, it wasn't like the members of Hei's team to let their ally down. At least, Yamada O-san had assured everyone that much.

He walked stealthily as he made his way through the dark and quiet town, taking care to avoid the least noise. He had to get to Ren quick and get the entire rescue plan inside his head. And Ren was the second –in-command to Hei- he would be his best contact.

Kanata kept to the field, trying to merge with the shadows wherever possible. He thought about what story he should use as a cover lest he was stopped for interrogation. An unemployed crippled soldier en route to Miyume for any layman's job just wouldn't hold up to it.

The streets of the town of Meiji formed a crossroad in front of him, separating the better part of the city from the slums. He ducked behind a closed noodle shop as he heard the heavy booted footfall. The door of Ren's tiny quarter was right in front of him. It took him fifteen minutes to decide whether he should go for it or not.

The house was in darkness like the rest of them and he put his hand inside the small slit to push the bamboo door aside. A cold trickle of fear ran through his body, the horrible foreboding of an impending danger. Common sense told him that there was no reason for it. Everything was as it should be. But the feeling persisted and every instinct in his body told him to run.

He grabbed the iron border of the door-slit with his fingers and slid it aside.

Inside the darkness of the open room, something clicked-the familiar click of a rifle. His eyes could only catch the silhouette of a man slumping onto the ground in front of two uniformed gunmen who had their backs on him, his ears catching a muffled groan. His brown eyes snapped wide open in horror as he realized that his instinct had been right.

He was halfway down the street, his running footsteps along with the cobbles of the street echoing hollowly in his ears. It was a pandemonium behind him- he could tell that much. Gunshots and rifle bolts fired on savagely behind his back, narrowly missing him. Kanata occasionally felt the fire brushing passed his cheek. He expected the bullets to hit him any second.

He swung beside an alleyway where an armored car roared to life, showering sprays of bullets spontaneously, chipping the wooden walls of the houses.

The headlights swept over him as the car turned the corner, pursuing him.

Another alleyway offered him refuge and he raced down it, emerging on a narrow wharf. High walls closed in on him from three sides and on the other side ran the river Saihi.

Kanata stopped and sank down, leaning against the slime covered wall as he tried to catch his breath and searched for a way out of this mess. Stone steps led to the river and he started down them as heavy footsteps sounded in the alley. He could try to swim away. It was unlikely he would get very far even if he eluded his immediate pursuers. A man soaked to the skin would stick out like a boil.

The brackish water sopped against the slippery embankments, making the faintest splashing sounds

Kanata thought that he saw a small shadow moving in front of him.

With bated breath, he watched the shadowy figure coming closer to him. Due to the pitch black darkness of the place, he could not make out the intruder's face.

"Come out hither with thy hands up."

The order came in a thickly dialectic voice from the wharf below. The slight figure paused beside him and he had a vague impression of fiery golden hair, tied backwards in a bun, and the voice, having a light falsetto, was that of a girl.


End file.
